This invention is directed to a process for making pant-like, personal care absorbent products having hook and loop fasteners on the side panels for ease of removal and donning without complete removal of a wearer""s clothing.
Pant-like absorbent garments, such as adult incontinence wear as well as infant and children""s diapers, swim wear and training pants, typically have adhesive fasteners on the sides for donning and removal, or else rely on the waist opening and leg openings to slide on and off the wearer. Adhesive fasteners wear out in as little as one use. Therefore, if a care giver checks the status of the wearer""s absorbent garment contents by unfastening an adhesive fastener, the garment often must be replaced due to a worn out adhesive fastener even if the absorbent garment itself is not in need of changing.
Absorbent garments that slide on and off a wearer are often messy when full. Furthermore, in order to remove such absorbent garments, the wearer""s clothing covering the absorbent garments, such as pants, must be completely removed. Checking the status of the wearer""s absorbent garment contents is often just as cumbersome as changing the absorbent garment.
There is a need or desire for a process for making pant-like, personal care absorbent garments that have refastenable side seams for ease of removal and donning without complete removal of a wearer""s clothing.
The present invention is directed to a process for making pant-like absorbent garments having hook and loop fasteners applied at the sides of the garments. The process can be carried out in either the cross direction or in the machine direction. In the process of the invention, a fastening component is attached to each of two front side panels and to each of two back side panels of the garment assembly. A pair of mating fastening components, folded lengthwise, is placed over two of the fastening components, either both on the front side panels or both on the back side panels. The folded edges of the mating fastening components face the distal edges, or the planned distal edges, of the front and back side panels. In the cross direction process, the assembly, or a plurality of adjacent assemblies, is then folded such that the folded mating fastening components are between one of the fastening components on the front side panel and one of the fastening components on the back side panel. Adjacent assemblies are then separated, thereby resulting in prefastened individual garments. In the machine direction process, the adjacent assemblies are first separated from one another and then folded, thereby resulting in prefastened individual garments.
The resulting absorbent garments have dual refastenable lap side seams and can be easily fitted to and removed from a wearer without complete removal of a wearer""s clothing. The refastenable side seams extend from a waist opening to each of two leg openings between a front panel and a back panel, and are xe2x80x9cdual-sidedxe2x80x9d such that the garment can be unfastened at either the front panel or the back panel. Each of the refastenable side seams includes a fastening component and a mating fastening component, each of which comprises either a hook material or a loop material. The refastenable lap side seams experience a shearing strain during use, as opposed to peel forces, thereby reducing the likelihood of the seams opening unexpectedly.
With the foregoing in mind, it is a feature and advantage of the invention to provide a process for making a pant-like absorbent garment that can be easily applied to and easily removed from a wearer without the need to entirely remove the wearer""s clothing.